Levit0
Well, it’s finally happened; both Gearbox Software and SEGA are getting slammed with a class action lawsuit over Aliens: Colonial Marines. The lawsuit was filed by Edelson LLC on behalf of plaintiff Damion Perrine in a Californian court yesterday. The plaintiff is claiming that the game was falsely advertised, more specifically that the final game and the demo footage were very different from one another, including the now infamous E3 2012 demo that featured a slew of features not available in the final game.
The suit also brings up that consumers that pre-purchased the game got burned by the fact that all reviews were under embargo until the day that Aliens: Colonial Marines actually released. As many retailers and digital distribution services, like Steam, do not offer refunds on pre-orders once the game has actually released.
Polygon also reached out to the Edelson law firm to inquire as to why they took on Damion Perrine’s case:
“The gaming community had a strong reaction to the release of Aliens: Colonial Marines,” “We think the video game industry is no different than any other that deals with consumers: if companies like Sega and Gearbox promise their customers one thing but deliver something else, then they should be held accountable for that decision.”
-Ben Thomassen from Edelson LLC law firm
This move is hardly surprising, many people were expecting lawsuits like this to be filed against Gearbox and SEGA once the game had released. In my opinion, it’s actually good to see that SEGA and Gearbox are now getting pressured for the shady practices used while promoting Aliens: Colonial Marines.
[Source]
